“It slowly dawned on
babywearers that they
could create a custom
wrap, in their favourite
colours, and custom
handwovens became
more interesting and more
sought after...”
Handwovens
The history,
the science,
the art.
Self confessed fibre geek, weaving enthusiast and handmade
tragic Cat Timms talks us through everything you need to know
about the crème de la crème of woven wraps, handwovens.
The word “handwoven” in babywearing has become
synonymous with bespoke, handcrafted, custom
baby wraps. There are a couple of different types of
handwovens though; for example, Girasol, Inda Jani and
Bebe Sachi, well known commercial brands with a much
higher number of wraps per run, are handwoven as well.
However, we’re going to focus on the bespoke, boutique,
limited-run handwovens, most often handwoven by
single weavers (usually WAHMs).
The History
Weaving is obviously an ancient science and art. All cloth
was handwoven before machines were invented in the
industrial age (1700s) to produce cloth at a much faster
rate for much cheaper. However handweaving never
went away and even as late as the 1940’s handwoven
fabric was still being used, mostly in bespoke gowns and
suits for wealthy people. It faded quickly after World War
2 and the age of polyester.
I have no doubt that modern mothers wore babies
in handwoven wraps before Uppymama started to do
so, however Uppy needs to be credited with bringing
handwovens to the forefront, slowly, of the boutique
babywearing world. It was Becky, doula, and Nancy,
30
weaver, who together created some handwovens for
teaching wrapping. By 2012, people were interested,
but it wasn’t a big thing and Uppies were offered in
trade for machine woven Oschas who were in their
hey day. It slowly dawned on babywearers that they
could create a custom wrap, in their favourite colours,
and custom handwovens became more interesting
and more sought after, plus the wrapping qualities
(and the fact that they needed almost no breaking
in, the type that Uppy were producing at the time in
cotton, compared to machine wovens which did).
2013 saw an explosion in weavers and the creation
of Loom to Wrap, the main international handwovens
group, to keep track of weavers, review them, provide
a place to geek out, and buy and sell. The handwoven
baby wraps world went from a handful of baby
wrap weavers to 50 in a matter of months. It wasn’t
without speedbumps as people thought weaving a
baby wrap was simple and just did it without learning
how to weave properly first. Briefly there was a
small flood of poorly woven and even unsafe baby
wraps on the market as the handwoven community
learnt what good weaving, and more importantly,
good weaving for babywearing, looks like.
carried away | Spring 2015 | Handwovens
Fast forward to 2015 and there are over 200 and
growing every day as many babywearers are inspired
to learn the craft. Just two short years ago it was almost
impossible to “get a custom” (have the opportunity
to work with a weaver to design your own wrap) but
now it’s relatively easy with so many weavers.
The Science
Recently I read a brilliant explanation of weaving by
Barbara Peterson of Aries Weavers. I could not improve
upon it so I quote her here with permission:
“Weaving is a method of creating fabric by interlacing
two sets of yarn threads at right angles. The lengthwise
threads are called the warp and the second set of threads
crossing them are called the weft. The warp threads
form the based for weaving; they are arranged parallel
to one another and are in tension on a loom. The weft
is a single thread that is passed over and under the
warp thread in a systematic way to create a piece of
cloth. Weavers working on large pieces use a treadle
loom, a large machine that holds long warp threads
and can make quick and complicated changes in the
placement of these threads to allow for many patterns.
Weaving fabric on a loom involves several steps.
First, the warp must be threaded on to the loom and
held under tension; this forms a surface of closely
spaced, parallel threads. To begin the process that
produce the fabric, a shed must be opened; that is
a space so that some warp threads are up and some
are down (depending on the draft). Next, a tool called
shuttle pulls the weft thread through the shed. Then
the beater forces the weft against the previously
placed threads to form the fabric. Finally, the raised
warp threads are lowered, and a new set is raised in
preparation for a new cycle. This locks the weft into
place, above certain warp threads and below others.
At the back of a loom is the warp beam around
which the warp threads are wrapped and kept under
tension. Periodically, the warp beam is rotated to
feed more warp thread as finished fabric is created.
Between the beam at the back and the fabric in the
front, each warp threads passes through a small eye
set in middle of a vertical wire called a heddle. Groups
of heddles are connected to a wood or metal frame
called a harness so that the group of heddles, together
with the warp threads passing through the heddle
eyes, can be raise of lowered in a single operation.”
It’s hard to
understand
without seeing
it; this is a helpful
video explaining
basic weaving.
Continued page 32
31
Handwoven